‘Dear Pip’, a father’s un-received telegram, 1938

In 1938, this telegram was addressed to eight-year-old Philippa ‘Pippa’ Frances Curran at her home in Nedlands. The partially opened envelope hints at an interrupted delivery. Inside, a small pink ‘urgent rate’ telegram held a simple yet profound message:

Dear Pippa, I love you for ever and ever,

your loving father, Frank Curran

A veteran of both World Wars, Frank Curran enlisted in 1916 at the age of twenty-nine. He met his future wife Doris in England while stationed there, and their long-distance courtship spanned nearly a decade before she relocated to Western Australia in 1928.

In 1940, almost precisely two years after sending this telegram, Frank re-enlisted. As part of the Army Reserve for Home Defence, his company manned fixed defences and vulnerable points of the Western Australian coastline.

Frank’s grandson Andrew Carter OAM founded the Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt movement in 1988, inspired by the American quilt during a visit to the USA. While most blocks from Andrew’s quilt are housed in Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, two Western Australian quilt blocks are held by the WA Museum. Stories from the Western Australian quilt are proudly displayed in the Wall of Love and Loss in the Reflections gallery of WA Museum Boola Bardip.